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Roxana Saberi, the American journalist who was being held in Iran until being released suddenly and recently, just did her first full length interview with Melissa Block at NPR.

Journalist Roxana Saberi, who spent four months in an Iranian prison, returned to the United States on May 22. Until now, she has not spoken to the media at length about her ordeal, during which she says she faced “severe psychological and mental pressure” to confess to being a spy.
In her first in-depth interview, Saberi tells NPR about the events that led to her arrest on Jan. 31, her four months in a Tehran prison, why she gave a false confession, and her take on evidence that was used against her that resulted in a speedy trial on April 13. Saberi, who lived in Iran for six years and reported for NPR among other news organizations, was sentenced to eight years in prison by an Iranian court.
In a turn of events, Saberi was freed May 11 after her sentence was reduced to a suspended two-year term. She tells NPR that to this day she doesn’t know why she was arrested — or why she was freed.

You can listen to the interview here.
On a related note, two journalists are also being held in North Korea, Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Their trial begins June 4th and there will be vigils around the country on June 3rd. More information here.

In March, North Carolina’s House of Representatives passed HB 29, an education bill that includes a litany of requirements for how schools teach sexual health. It is riddled with contradictions, conservative ideologies, and scientific inaccuracies. Sadly, it will do little to improve—and, indeed might harm—the physical and mental health of young people across the state.

The bill requires that beginning in the seventh grade, all schools provide a reproductive health and safety course with a curriculum that is “objective and based upon scientific research that is peer reviewed and accepted by professionals and credentialed experts in the field of sexual health education.” Oddly enough, the requirements of the ...

Ed. note: This post was originally published on the Community site.

In March, North Carolina’s House of Representatives passed HB 29, an education bill that includes a litany of requirements for how schools teach sexual health. ...

Elaine Noble and Kathy Kozachenko should be household names. They should be just as lauded within LGBT communities as Rosa Parks is within Black communities, but unfortunately many people don’t have any idea who they are, or what they contributed to history.

Kathy Kozachenko successfully ran for the Ann Arbor City Council in April of 1974, five years after Stonewall and a few years before the assassination of Harvey Milk, as an out lesbian — making her the first openly LGBT person to ever be elected to any political office. She joined the Ann Arbor City Council as the third LGBT member, but was the first to be elected while out.

Elaine Noble and Kathy Kozachenko should be household names. They should be just as lauded within LGBT communities as Rosa Parks is within Black communities, but unfortunately many people don’t have any idea who they are, or ...

We write on behalf of young people throughout the U.S., who believe that all people should be able to access safe, legal abortion care. Did you get our notification? That we want to switch our Facebook relationship status from “in a relationship” to “it’s complicated?”

We know that these are tough times. State houses across the country are introducing and passing an unprecedented number of restrictions on access to reproductive and sexual health services. (Almost 800 have been introduced in the last 3 months alone!) Many in Congress are dead-set on enacting similar laws on a federal level. When they can’t, they are sneaking harmful abortion ...

Ed. note: This post was originally published on the Community site.

Dear Congressional Pro-Choice Leaders:

We write on behalf of young people throughout the U.S., who believe that all people should be able to access safe, legal ...